Well, I just spent the past 2 days sitting in on my sons class watching Mr. Abbott. Feb 23 and Feb 24. The 23rd was a Chambara tournament for the young kids in our Dojo. Mr. Abbott took over the tournament which suprized our Sensei.

I'll tell you right now, after watching him for two days, I like the guy. I was expecting him to be arrogant, throw his superiority around and kind of awe everyone. He acted just like a normal confidant instructor. The kids loved him. After warming up for 20 minutes, he started the tournament. (I'll tell you one thing, we usually have parents that are fidgity, waiting for a tournament to start on time. But everyone forgot the time watching him control the kids. He even got the problem kids to do push-ups and no one complained. Tournament went fast and smooth.

After the tournament, there was a first seminar for the adults. Several students from different Dojo's attended. 4pm-8pm for a first day was quite a workout. Everyone was dripping in sweat and tired. Sunday was a bit different, but more of the same. Different people from other Dojo's showed up. 10am-4pm. People that got tired, couldn't understand instructions or goofed off in general were "razzed" by Mr. abbott. Again, his superiority was not an issue. He was just a plain instructor.

Oh and yes, Chambara was part of the main excersizes. Like it or not, we have schools in the area that teach it. Including my sons school. And as Mr. Abbott puts it, a padded sword is easier to manuever than a person dressed in armor. As a parent, this makes it safe for little kids to start off right away learning the sword. And the kids are aften yelled at to treat it as a real sword.

Right now, there is a 2nd tournament scheduled for tonight, a seminar Tuesday morning and 2 final seminars Wednesday.As far as I'm concerned, Mr. Abbott is a professional and I got my moneys worth from these seminars. And my son is enjoying this too.

_________________________
It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.

Its interesting, I find a website saying he received kyoshi in a style called Goshindo, also stating he spent 14 years at the ryu's hombu in yokohama (http://www.samuraisports.com/about/danaabbott.html)

but his book, cutting through the mystery, implies that he received kyoshi in toyama ryu...

I have never trained with him or attended a seminar either way so I cannot comment on his actual ability or credibility. But my dojo does do chanbara for fun and his "actionflex" come with an outstanding warranty

but like pjsmith said, I dont see chanbara as having any real japanese swordsmanship context.. it is fun though..

I actually don't think he ever said.Supposedly, Toyama Ryu was his original art and perhaps what "Goshindo" is based on. I never saw the Goshindo.He does have a video series that is quite obviously based on Toyama Ryu. Althuogh it is not the Toyama Ryu that we do.All any offical bios I read just say "trained in Japan", "trained in Yokohama" or phrases like "certified in Japan".

The cover does say "Kyoshi Dana Abbott"It also says "Includes" Toyama Ryu. Not that it is a Toyama Ryu book.Unless stated somewhere in the bio that his Kyoshi title was awarded in another art - like Karate - then the only inference can be that it was awarded in Toyama Ryu.

On another note: There is some usefulness in the video series for those with very little to no experience. I would believe he had some Toyama Ryu training perhaps even beyond Shodan-Nidan.

It doesn't appear that Dana Abbott has 7th-dan Kyoshi in Toyama-ryu, but rather Chanbara. His instructor is/was Tetsundo Tanabe, the founder of Goshindo/Chanbara but Mr. Abbott doesn't ever really mention his teacher, which is interesting for several reasons. Mr. Abbott is listed as the international director on Mr. Tanabe's website however.

Tetsundo Tanabe was also one of Hataya Mitsuo sensei's instructors and I believe Hataya sensei is ranked in Goshindo/Chanbara (7th-dan in kodachi), as are a few of his Toyama-ryu students in the US. I don't think there's any affiliation with Dana Abbott however.

Anyone with first hand knowledge can feel free to correct anything I might have wrong though...